Thinking about making extra income online? Or, are you thinking about changing your career? Let’s look at these 10 high-paying skills you can start learning today!
Table of Contents
1. Blogging
Blogging is one of the best skills to learn. There are many things that fall under blogging, you have to learn how to write articles, you have to:
- Pick the right niche (click here)
- Learn how to research good articles to write (click here)
- Learn how to do SEO for your blog posts
- Provide good reasons for people to revisit your blog
- Get people on your mailing list (click here)
- Learn how to network with other bloggers to obtain backlinks
- And more!
All of that is worth it because there comes a time in blogging that you have enough winning articles for you to work a few hours (many are working 5 hours a week with their blogs) a week while pulling in a 6 or 7 figure per year. 8 figure also isn’t too out of the range of possibility as well.
All you have to do at that point is to maintain your existing blog posts that are ranking high on Google, make sure it doesn’t slip down too much, put out a few blog posts once in a while, and you can use the rest of the time to do whatever you want whenever you want.
The start-up cost of blogging is low. With just a few hundred dollars you can start a legitimate blogging business.
It takes time to grow, it definitely isn’t an overnight success. You should aim to have 500 blog posts and give each of those blog posts 8 months to rank on Google first before you give up. It takes time for Google to rank your articles.
If you want a comprehensive guide on how to start a blog, click here.
Click here to read: Want to be your own boss? 8 Reasons to become a blogger
Want to find out how much a blogger makes? Click here. You’d be surprised.
2. Coding (programming)
The following terms are the same thing:
- Coder
- Programmer
- Software engineer
- Computer programmer
- Developer
You may also hear more specific terms such as:
- Full-stack developer
- Front-end developer
- Back-end developer
- Java programmer
Each of the terms above is different types of programmers who code different stuff using different types of programming languages and have different types of responsibilities.
For instance, some may be responsible for coding a website while others may be responsible for coding an app.
You may also see the following terms:
- Junior developer (1–3 years experience)
- Intermediate developer (3–5 years experience)
- Senior developer (5+ years experience)
Many programming languages are so new that it’s impossible to have more than 5 years of experience.
If you do see a programming language start getting popular, it’s good to start learning as you’re likely to be some of the most experienced people in the world with that programming language. You’d get offered a pretty sum for that skill.
One thing to note is that there’ll be lots of people telling you that you can make $100k per year with a degree from Google Skillshop.
Don’t be fooled. Sure, it’s possible but if you take a look at some freelancing sites such as PeoplePerHour or Upwork, you’ll find out that it’s difficult for even those with 3+ years of experience to land a job as there are so many competitors who are willing to work for pennies to get the job done. They may live in low-income countries where they don’t need as much money per month to survive. It’s a race to the bottom.
Once you learn the skills, you can try freelancing but know that you won’t make $100k per year right away because there are too many talents. It’s quite saturated. You want to try and get experience from real-life jobs outside of freelancing.
Many jobs would not consider freelancing gigs as part of your many years of experience. They require actual jobs with legitimate companies. It will take you at least 3+ years to get to $100k per year. Your first year as a programmer may make you $30k — 50k per year and that is if you get a job after thousands of resumes and hundreds of interviews.
Nevertheless, after you get passed the 3 years mark, jobs will come to you easier. Before that point, prepare to work for pennies.
Nothing is as easy as taking a course by Google or Udemy and then quickly landing you a job making you $100k per year.
I’m not selling you a dream here. I’m telling you the truth. Programming is hard work and it isn’t for everybody. Sure it’s good money but the road to good money is full of rejections. Be ready. You should only code if you like it because there are other things on the list that require less time to learn and can make you the same if not more money.
If you’re interested, check out this roadmap for different types of programmers.
3. Web design (UI/UX Design, Product Design)
The following titles mean the same thing:
- Web designer
- UI/UX designer
- Product designer
- Frontend designer
Here are some of the things that you may need to know as a web designer:
- Responsive design
- Color theory
- Typography
- Adobe XD
- Photoshop
- Aftereffect
- Illustrator
- InDesign
- Figma
- Webflow
- CMS
- Copywriting
- HTML
- CSS
- Some Javascript
I recommend courses by Daniel Walter Scott. He teaches mainly the Adobe skills you need to know as a UIUX designer.
There are certainly a lot of things to know.
The difference between a web designer and a web developer is that a web designer designs the look and feel and even functions of the website while the web developer code the design out to real life.
You’d need about 50–100 hours of practice to become a junior web designer. Some people may argue that you’d need 200+ hours. If you can use your time fairly wisely you can learn everything you need to know within 100 hours and get a job where you continue to learn more.
There’s currently no professional UIUX design bachelor’s degree that you can get. You can only get a degree in a similar field such as graphic design, psychology, art, design, etc. You can attend a Bootcamp if you want but you can totally land a UIUX design job without a 4 years degree. Be ready to take some low-paying entry-level jobs in the beginning while you build your resume.
4. Graphic design
Professional graphic designers require a 4 years bachelor’s degree so it may be out of the question for many of you who may not be able to afford a graphic design degree.
However, you can learn the basic graphic design skills online and use them to help build your brand or make things to sell in places such as CreativeMarket.
Here are some of the things you need to know as a graphic designer:
- Photoshop
- Indesign
- Illustrator
- Typography
- Color theory
- And more!
You can sell your design in the following places:
- CreativeMarket
- Etsy
- Gumroad
- Amazon merch
- Redbubble
- Society6
- Teespring
You can also offer to teach a course on what you know about graphic design.
Of course, you can also consider offering your graphic design service as a freelancer on Fiverr or Upwork.
5. Blockchain technology
This is one of the newest technologies that are gaining traction in recent times. There’ll be more need for people with this skill.
There are courses you can take on blockchain technology. The good news is that there aren’t a lot of experts on blockchain technology currently so if you want to cash in, you should start learning now.
6. Social media marketing
This skill can be useful for building your own brand or for building someone else’s.
The skill of social media marketing is the skill of marketing your brand through social media.
Here are the most used social media platforms:
- YouTube
- Tiktok
Note, that it’s not in order.
You can become an expert in one or more of the following social media platforms and take it to the next level by teaching it to others or using it to help others with their brand.
You can offer your service in places such as:
- Upwork
- Fiverr
7. Video editing
Some video editors are paid thousands per video. You can certainly make money with video editing by offering the service to people who need it.
You can also cash in on your video editing skills by creating videos yourself and building a brand around the videos you created.
At some point, you may also be able to sell your video editing skills in a course.
8. SEO
SEO stands for search engine optimization. SEO is basically just the strategies that you can learn and implement to make it easier for someone to find your content when they search it up on google or youtube for instance.
This is a useful skill for any content creator and is a high-paying skill that many would shell out hundreds or thousands for.
You can pick a niche of SEO to learn and implement in your own work. After having some practice, you can begin to offer your service to people. You can do so via Fiveer and Upwork for resonance. There really are so many places for you to sell your skills in SEO.
Final thought
There are so many high-paying skills you can learn today that can make you money for years to come. It can even become your new career. It certainly isn’t easy and would take time to learn these skills but it’s worth it.
You should pick a skill that suits you the most. A skill that you have the most passion for because you’ll stick with it through the hard times.
Good luck!
